SLIDING DOOR WALL INSTALLED BONUS NEW HOUSE UPDATE

Here is one big project they did recently...

The installation of the living room windows with sliding doors.  It's a big project as they assemble it flat on the ground, the frame, and then the glass windows and doors are put in separately...

Here is the finished result!  8' tall and 16' feet wide.  Each section is four feet wide so when the middle is open, we will have an eight foot wide opening onto the screened porch.  Oh, and keep in mind, they haven't repainted the porch yet, but it will be white, not the barn red color of the house.

These are the latches and handles.  The sliding doors are so well balanced and heavy, you can use one finger to slide it open.  Pretty cool.

Here it is from the outside, closed...

...and here it is open.  Again, 8 feet wide.  Should be perfect for what we were hoping for.  This area will have a dining table, a hutch, a smaller side table, some extra chairs, etc.  

Funny, part, the builder told us to have fun opening and closing it...because it was about to be off limits when they sealed it up.  Sure enough...

...it's now taped shut, the locks are taped up and this note is on there:

"DO NOT OPEN DOOR! $200 back charge". 

A back charge is something builders do to prevent something from being damaged by contractors.  They just don't want the door opened and closed 100 times before we ever move in so if this seal is broken, they will charge the contractor $200 for doing it.

Now they are insulating, more on that next week!

LOW VOLTAGE INSTALL NEW HOUSE UPDATE

OK, this might be a boring post, but I'll try to make it exciting, ha.  The next step we had was a low voltage installer come out for all the things that we are doing to the house separate from what the builder does.

What is a low voltage install?  It's all the things that you hook up that don't require 110 volts.

Things like the following:

We are having in ceiling surround sound speakers put in the living room for the TV.  That will save us on cords across the room, finding places to plug in, etc.  Plus, we can use the same speakers to play music in the living room and still be able to hear it in the dining room and kitchen.

What's the blue tube that was also installed?  This wall is where the TV will hang in the living room.  Note the left side of the stud is where the electrical outlet will be and the blue tube with openings at the top and bottom was added so that devices can be put into a cabinet below and the cables can be fed up/down through the tube and plugged into the TV directly, meaning no cords will be hanging down the wall and we won't be trying to fish them through, behind the drywall.

Speaking of speakers, we also had outdoor speakers prewired on the back porch.  Now those aren't three speakers, ha.  The one on the left end is the new wiring for a speaker, the middle one is one light, the next one is the ceiling fan (middle of the porch) and at the other end is another light and the second speaker.

All the doors were wired for an alarm system...

...as were all the windows.

What is this?  Another speaker?  No, this is in the foyer and it is called a wireless access point or WAP.  This enables devices to connect to a wired network without wires, extending the reach and providing internet access to devices like laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.  It works like a gap between what you have plugged in and wireless devices.

Speaking of, not to forget outside, this bundle on the wall is on the screened in porch, it will be an outdoor WAP, so that any outdoor wireless devices we might have will have coverage and connection.

Oh, and there's the other porch speaker, ha. 

What is this wire for?  It's for one of several outdoor cameras.  Realistically, again, we just figure this is the best time to do anything like this, it will save work and expense later on.  We'll eventually have cameras to keep an eye on things should we be out of town on vacation but what we really want is a real time, 4k HD way to watch deer and other wildlife!  They will be high tech versions of our trailcams!  It would be so cool to be at work and see deer roaming around or bunnies or bobcats or anything that might roam through and we can figure out what we have happening and plan ahead for the next visitation, ha.

It all terminates here in the closet in the study.

All of this will make the house smarter and we figure it is better to do it now while the walls are open so it can be done easier and cheaper.  We want to make not only working from home easier, but also using internet-connected devices like our Alexa, a Ring doorbell, etc work smoothly without losing signal.  Why the outside one?  One thing I will have for sure is a weather station and this will ensure that the data gets transmitted to the house even if the station ends up being far away in the yard.  There are even smart lights that we can use for outdoors lighting around the barn and shed that we will be able to control from inside the house.  If we have a driveway gate in the future, we can control it from inside as well. 

We are, in a sense, future proofing the house for things that we need now and new things we (or future occupants) might need later on as things change.

Next time, sliding door installation!

YARDWORK ACCOMPLISHED

It's been such a terrible weekend in Texas with the devastation in the Hill Country flooding.  Such loss of life.  Those heavy rains were just like a tropical storm.  We figured some of the rain had made its way to the farm.  I was planning on going to the farm to at least finish the edging when we woke up to the horrible news and rain possibly heading this direction as well.

I waited until Saturday and when I got there, it was virtually bone dry!  Not sure why, but thankfully, most of that heavy rain missed us out there.  I was happy to unexpectedly mow.  I broke out the Zen Machine 2.

About the same amount as last time.  I've stopped mowing the trails since we'll be clearing large areas after we move in, seems kind of pointless in this heat to do extra work that might not be needed.

Look, it's the new house AND the barn and shed!

The driveway is a conundrum.  It's so much higher now that there is a drop off on the side, it's hard to mow.  I do what I can, but I need to figure out a solution.  I'll just wait until the Fall, and we'll figure it out then.

The main reason I went out there was to finish what I started last weekend with the new cordless trimmer.  I was able to do it, and the trimmer did a wonderful job.

Before...

After.

Another before...

And after.

It was such a relief.  I feel accomplished.  I still need to fix up the inside of the beds, add some soil and top it off with mulch.  It will be easier since the hard part is done, so one of these weekends, I'll take the farm truck and buy some bags to toss in the back.

In the meantime, if you see the sky pics in the after photos, rain was coming.

I finished, put everything up and headed out...that blue arrow is the farm.  I left just before we did get some of that heavy rain finally moving in from the Hill Country to here.

Keep Texas in your thoughts, it's going to be a long recovery for that area.

 

Tomorrow, a house update...

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

It's been a relaxing weekend, which we needed.  At the farm yesterday to edge AND mow, more on that tomorrow.  Lots of good food too.

We had some pork tenderloin that we used some BBQ rub on and then basted with sauce, it was delicious.  We put it with some green beans and turkey bacon and 2nd Man made some cornbread with whole kernel corn and peppers.  It was a great meal.

Hobart is unimpressed.  Time to rest in his ACTUAL CAT BED!  No hard floor, no mat in front of the fridge, no blanket on a chair, no cardboard box, he is actually in a cat bed that we've had for years.  Yeah it happens on occasion.  But we keep it just for these moments.  Because...

#notspoiled

4TH OF JULY 2025

An extra day off, we'll take it!

The plan, as this posts, is to check the weather at the farm.  I would like to head out to at least finish the edging around the orchard area...but yesterday we had some fairly decent rains out there (and some flooding in Houston) so I may have to put it off until this weekend.

Might be better to stay off the roads anyway in the afternoon.  Tonight will be all the fireworks events around the country.  Remember, if you have pets, take extra good care of them with the loud noises as they (and indeed many people as well) can be sensitive during this time.

Be safe in your celebrating!

BLUE PORCH CEILINGS NEW HOUSE UPDATE

Well, last week, we showed the exterior red and white of the house.

This one shows the porch ceilings.  

Here's the back porch (that will eventually be screened in), we did the blue here...

...and here is the front porch, also the same blue.

Many call it "haint blue".  

The word "haint" comes from the Southern Gullah (a community in South Carolina) word for "haunt" or "spirit".  They believed that spirits couldn’t cross water and so painting things a watery blue color was intended to trick the spirits into seeing water and it would stop them in their tracks.  There is also some urban legend about wasps not building nests but that is probably more anecdotal.  Original haint blue porch ceilings had lye in the paint and lye repels insects. So that's probably where that came from.  

But hey, wasps, ghosts, spirits, whatever it keeps away, we're OK with that!

It just creates such an open and airy feeling when you're standing under it.  It's very calming and peaceful and on a blue sky day, it really does seem kind of like the sky.  It also reflects a lot of light so it makes it brighter.

We LOVE it!

RAN OUT OF JUICE

 NO, not the new cordless trimmer, it was great!

"I" ran out of juice, ha.

I had the new trimmer fully charged and ready to go.  I haven't been able to use a trimmer for a few weeks in this area.  The mower won't fit in the small areas and then our  trimmer/weedeater died and we had to get a new one.

We opted for the battery operated EGO professional powerhead plus.  It worked great.  More on that later in another post.  As for me, not so much.

It was so hot, I didn't get many pictures since I wanted to just get right to it, but here are a few.

Here is a "before".

Believe it or not, there's a round raised bed in between those two square beds.

There it is!

Here's another raised bed before pic.

This is the fig tree.  At least somewhere in there is a fig tree in a raised bed.

Oh yeah, there it is, ha!

The trimmer was great and I left with a little more charge on it but dang it, it was just SO hot. 

Feels like was 107.  That was at 1:26pm.  Yep, that's when I decided to call it a day and head back into town.

The new trimmer was great, as I mentioned, will do a full post review on it later.  There is a turbo boost mode which runs down the battery more, but you only do that for heavy grass.  We had some heavy grass.  But still, I could have finished had I not run out of juice, ha. 

It will just have to be a "trimming in two parts".

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Another week, another month, gone.  Can you believe it's almost JULY?!?

Recently, 2nd Man made his spin on a Spanish tortilla, also called a Spanish egg and potato omelette.  It's onions, potatoes and eggs.  He used one whole egg and then a carton of egg whites, to make it heart healthy.  Topped with some fresh parsley and salsa.  So good!

And here is Hobart, living his best life.  Not sure if the pillow from the couch is enveloping him or if he's melting into it, but either way, he was happy.  Because...

#notspoiled

OFF TO THE FARM WITH A NEW TOOL TO USE

It's a clear day, a little warm of course, but at least no rain (that comes tomorrow apparently).  So 2nd Man is staying in town and I'm heading out to the farm.  

First, need to see what has been done, though with third party inspections and stuff, it was a relatively quiet week out there.  Secondly, I need to edge the fruit tree area.  Haven't done that in a. few weeks since the trimmer died so we had to break down and buy...

...a new string trimmer!  Got a good one too AND it's electric.  While researching, we decided to get the E-Go brand.  But we didn't just buy a trimmer, which they make, we went with their powerhead plus series, this one packaged with the string trimmer.  The system is awesome because of this:

One powerhead has all sorts of tools and attachments.  We upgraded to the bigger battery, with a runtime of 60 minutes on a full charge and takes about 45 minutes to fully recharge.  Eventually we'll get a second (and third or even fourth) battery so we're always ready to go.  Anyway, lots more about all this in a future post.  For now, I can clean that area up and make it look good once again.

That's the only thing I want to do out there, shouldn't need to mow so it's a quick trip with a lot of work and then back to recover the rest of the weekend.

Hope your weekend is off to a good start!

EASTER BASKET STORAGE SCORE

 You all know I like to find a bargain...well check this out!  This was a bargain we can use for a completely different purpose than originally intended.

Found these at Walmart on my lunch break after Easter...they are Easter baskets (!?).  Doesn't really remind us of an Easter basket but hey, maybe it's a contemporary version, ha.  They are metal wire mesh with a folding wooden handle.

They are a great size and even better...

They were 80% off!  At an original price of $8.98, they were $1.80 each.  I texted a picture to 2nd Man and he said, "wow, YES buy more!"  So of course...

I bought all they had left in white (also came in pastel blue and green but we just wanted white for the new house).  Now we have eight!  We were thinking of all the things we could use them for.  In the new pantry for storing produce (potatoes, onions, garlic, etc), packages of pasta or seasoning packets, maybe even in the extra fridge or freezer for smaller items to be contained like small bottles or jars or even in the bathroom for storing smaller items.

Sometimes, you have to see beyond something to use it for something else.

Win/win!